The present invention relates to physical and neurological rehabilitation of, in many cases, victims of brain damage and stroke, and in particular the repetitive therapy necessary to regain function.
Victims of brain injury, including injury caused by stroke, often find themselves paralyzed or with severely limited mobility despite having healthy muscles and bones. This is the result of damage to brain tissue and neurons responsible for controlling the affected muscles. It has long been believed that this kind of nerve injury was essentially irreversible. However, modern research has shown that human nerve cells and brain material is much more plastic than previously thought, and that nerves and brain cells can grow and strengthen in response to exercise just as muscles and bones do. This insight gives hope that victims of brain injury may be able to regain function lost through the injury by intensive therapy. The therapy tends to involve massive repetition of the injured part of the body.
The therapy required for nerve growth and healing is intensely repetitive and requires consistent daily practice over a long period of time to show readily observable results. The typical therapy to regain function in a injured limb involves placing a mitt over the non-affected limb. Then one attempts to train the affected side by repetitively repeating selected tasks. Unfortunately, the physical therapist often cannot detect minor progress made with extended effort, and progress over time generally goes unnoticed. Thus it is difficult for the physical therapist to measure how well the activity is performed, especially with minor differences in how the activity is perceived. After a limited time with the physical therapist, the patient is sent home to continue to practice.
It is too expensive for most patients to conduct repeated sessions with the assistance of professionals, such as physical therapists. Unless a patient is wealthy enough to hire a therapist to help, the majority of therapy must be conducted on the initiative of the patient, usually at the patient's residence. But because therapy is boring and progress slow, most patients lose motivation before they achieve sufficient progress to make the affected limb really useful again. Then, because the affected limb is not useful, it tends to not be used. Thus, other ways of accomplishing daily tasks are found. Muscles atrophy with non-use, and nerves in like fashion gradually lose their ability to stimulate muscles. Through this process of “learned nonuse,” the injury becomes permanent and irreversible.
What is needed, then, is a method for conducting therapy of brain-injured patients which is cost effective and that will enable patients to maintain their motivation by watching and being rewarded by incremental progress towards their recuperative goals.